Portraits of Former Factories in Como (A Tribute to Gabriele Basilico)

A few days ago, the great architectural photographer Gabriele Basilico died in Milan. With this translation of my article (that I published in Italian language few months ago), I want to make a little tribute to this great teacher and gentleman.

This work is based on the wonderful collection “Portraits of Factories” (“Ritratti di Fabbriche”) of Gabriele Basilico. Walking in Como with my Fed 3 loaded with an Ilford HP5+ film, I tried to document a world that no longer exists. After so many articles devoted to leisure and the joy of being together, I want to share with you some austere reflections on a topical issue: the factories are now closed.

Browsing through a book of the great architectural photographer Gabriele Basilico, I came across in his famous portraits of factories, made with a large format analog camera. He was a master of the exploration of the the suburbs of the main Italian and European cities. As a tribute to the great master, I decided to walk in my city Como with a Fed 3, searching for tracks and details of a world that no longer exists, the industrial world as we have known until a few years ago.

While I was writing this article, I thought to include some photos of some moving people, even fleetingly, to make the images less dramatic and distressing, or, with a change of framing, accentuate the drama. But my definitive choice was to to document the urban details without people. In these pictures, like in those of the great master Basilico, people are not present, but their presence can be imagined, remembering that everything you are seeing was built by human hands, populated by workers and technicians, and fully integrated in the social life of the city.

In recent decades, the high cost of labor and the appearance of new industries in China, India and in the former Soviet bloc countries has led many factories to close. Some of these have transferred its production in Eastern Europe or Asia. Before this, Como was one of the most important European place about textile production and silk processing. We are experiencing a major change, because for many years the industry has helped us to produce culture, and not only from the technical point of view. After the quick de-industrialization, our social and cultural context are rapidly changing, throwing us in a profound loss, but also leaving open new spaces for new ideas.

“Let’s not pretend that things will change if we keep doing the same things. A crisis can be a real blessing to any person, to any nation. For all crises bring progress. Creativity is born from anguish. Just like the day is born from the dark night. It’s in crisis that inventive is born, as well as discoveries, and big strategies. He who overcomes crisis, overcomes himself, without getting overcome. Who blames his failure to a crisis neglects his own talent, and is more respectful to problems than to solutions. Incompetence is the true crisis. The greatest inconvenience of people and nations is the laziness with which they attempt to find the solutions to their problems. There’s no challenge without a crisis. Without challenges, life becomes a routine, a slow agony. There’s no merits without crisis. It’s in the crisis where we can show the very best in us. Without a crisis, any wind becomes a tender touch. To speak about a crisis is to promote it. Not to speak about it is to exalt conformism. Let us stop, once and for all, the menacing crisis that represents the tragedy of not being willing to overcome it”. – Albert Einstein

All these photos were taken in an afternoon of the last part of November, with my Fed 3 loaded with an ilford HP5 film roll. The lens is the amazing Industar 10 (Fed 50/3,5), a Russian copy of the famous Leica Elmar, with an hard contrast and some vintage tones. The development was made in Rodinal Special, with a slight pushing and with a more than usual agitation, to have a dry grain and a great contrast, to emphasize the dramatic nature of subject

With this series of photos I merely report what my eyes have seen, trying to convey my mood with these images in black and white, as I was walking with my camera for a peripheral zone of my city. A neighborhood where, until a few years ago, coexisted residential areas, gardens and small and medium industrial and manufacturing companies. Sometimes, I think that the artistic aspect, that help us to see beyond what we normally perceive superficially with our eyes, can inspire us to find new ideas to overcome the difficult conditions in which we are now. I’m thinking to the beautiful image of Ernst Haas (Sunbathers), taken in Vienna immediately after World War II, in which a young mother with her ​​children enjoys a moment of sun, with some buildings destroyed by bombing in front of her.

4 Comments

Very well done. I like the slightly gritty B&W photos. It is sad that so much industry is falling by the wayside. There is hope though as new technology comes about. If governments will stay out of the way, entrepreneurs will come up with ways to make things work again.

More Interesting Articles

This article is a tribute to a great Italian poet, painter and photographer, Mario Giacomelli (1925-2000). His images are characterized by a strong graphic contrast and are related to suffering and decay in our world. In this article I pay tribute to his photographic series taken at the Sanctuary of Lourdes in France. Read more after the jump!

This is a tribute to a founding father of photography, the American photographer Paul Strand. In 1955, he released ​a book about Luzzara, a small town in central Italy, in collaboration with the famous neo-realist screenwriter Cesare Zavattini. To pay homage to this great artist, this summer I personally went to Luzzara to take a series of photos that shows the changes in this little town 60 years after the work of Strand was published.

On a sunny April Sunday, I decided to load a Lomography X-Pro Slide 200 on my new Lomo LC-A+; both bought few weeks ago from the Lomography Online Shop to take some photos of some Italian food stalls in the center of my city, Como. Here my first impressions about this interesting film.

A few days ago, I received from the Lomolab the scans of a roll that I used a couple of weeks ago when I documented a Yoga for Africa public demonstration in Cernobbio, a small town near the city of Como, using my Sprocket Rocket. In this article I'll explain to you the reason that led me to choose this camera. Read more after the jump!

This article is a tribute to the photojournalist Bernard Cahier, the greatest Formula 1 photographer known as the "Cartier-Bresson of Motor Racing" for his great ability in capturing the right moment. Here, I'll feature a series of photos that I took at the Monza Grand Prix with a timeless black and white film! Take a look after the jump!

This article is dedicated to arguably one of the most famous street photographers in the world, Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004). On this occasion, I felt obliged to write a tribute to this great artist whom I consider the "Mozart of Photography." His photos are inimitable, and to try to reproduce his innate sense of composition, harmony, and choice of the right moment is but an illusion. So I chose an unusual way to pay tribute, the only way possible for me. Take a look!

Yesterday I picked up from my trusty photography shop in Como a developed and scanned color film roll containing images of the Sicilian festival held on May 1 at the city's historical center. A few hours ago, I made some scans of these images, which I'm pleased to show you in this article! Read more after the jump!

In 1966, American artist Dan Graham published an article about typical one-family homes in ordinary American suburbs built after World War II. He used a cheap Kodak Instamatic camera, with a deliberately amateur approach. In this article, I wrote a tribute to him with a series of photos taken in the suburbs of my city, Como, using my pretty Diana Mini camera. Read more after the jump!

The French photographer Bruno Barbey took a series of photos in Southern Italy in the '60s, many of these in the city of Naples. In this tribute to a great master of social and street photography, I'll show you a series of photos that I took in the islands of Ischia and Procida located a few kilometers from this wonderful city. Read more after the jump!

Shop News

Really want to bring your film photos to life? We’re now offering totally analogue fine art prints in a host of large sizes and formats! Carefully enlarged from your negatives onto premium photographic paper by lab professionals, each picture is a unique piece of craftsmanship.

This is a homage to another important street and social photographer who captured the essence of the life in Paris. As a multi-faceted and versatile artist, he was involved in street photography, urban details, and experiments in pictorialism. In this article, I pay tribute to this great artist and one of his most important books: "Graffiti." Read more after the jump!

This article is a tribute to the great Russian photographer, sculptor, graphic designer, and painter Alexander Rodchenko. He was a pioneer in the search for unusual perspectives, with extreme view from above or from below, and with an innovative use of the diagonals and tilted views in his dynamic compositions. For this article, I was inspired by his most famous photo, a woman climbing a staircase, taken in 1930, which is reminiscent of the famous Odessa stair of the film "Battleship Potemkin" by Sergei Eisenstein.

This article shows many joyful people hanging out in the parks of my city, Como, and enjoying their free time in a friendly way. It's also a tribute to a great social photographer: Willy Ronis. This is also an hymn to frieendhip, love, and all peacefully outdoor activities. Read more after the jump!